too young for hornworms?

[jbrough42]

Hey folks, I want to start introducing the occasional hornworm into my veiled's diet. He is just shy of 4 months old and he is an extremely healthy eater. He eats 15-20 1/2" gut loaded crickets per day and is growing like a weed. He also eats the occasional meal worm and wax worm. We should be getting in an order of small Dubia any day now. What is a good age to start feeding hornworms?

 

[absolutbill]

You can start now, but what I would do is buy a cup of hornworm eggs and let them hatch at your house. That way you can feed them off and you have more time before they get too big. You will have to put them in the fridge every other day once they hit maturity to slow their growth, but at that point they will be too big for your veiled. Do you have any other reptiles in your house that could eat them, like a bearded dragon? At this point you'll be able to feed off 1/2 grown hornworms, just be ready because you can nearly watch them grow it's so fast. I have 3 full grown chams and 2 dragons, so I don't have a problem feeding them off before they are too big, just stay on top of it and keep feeding off the largest worms. Good luck - Piglett has a hornworm blog on here that you can read for a lot more info.

 

[sandrachameleon]

never too young to try any food of the appropriate size.
age is irrelevant.

 

[TreyLcham]

They are never to young in my opinion! I would order some from http://www.mulberryfarms.com/Hornworms-Goliaths-c11/ These guys always are good but be sure to tell them only put 1inch worms in the cup then when they come wait like a day or 2 till they are the size you want and he or she will eat them right up.

 

[melble68]

You know the state of FL don't want you to have Dubias. Discoids are ok legally, but Dubias are not supposed to be able to be shipped here.

 

[jbrough42]

Ummm...Dubia? What Dubia? I don't know nothing about no stinking Dubia... especially not in the great state of Florida...

 

[melble68]

Darn typos. I knew you meant Discoids.